Seahawks Unlikely To Franchise DT Sheldon Richardson

Seahawks GM John Schneider told reporters on Friday at the Combine that they don’t plan to franchise free agent DT Sheldon Richardson “at this point,” per Bob Condotta.

This fits with a report from Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, who mentioned a few weeks ago that while the Seahawks want to keep Richardson long-term, they’re unlikely to use their franchise tag on him in the coming weeks.

Franchising Richardson would run the Seahawks $13,387,000 fully guaranteed for the 2018 season and given some of their questions on defense, it’s likely too much to commit to him.

After the season, Richardson mentioned that he “definitely” expects to be back in Seattle next year.

“Yeah I do, actually. I definitely expect to be back here,” Richardson said, via Pro Football Talk.

According to Richardson, the Seahawks have already approached him about returning next season.

“They haven’t threw out a number or nothing but they said they wanted me back so that’s a plus in my book,” Richardson said.

Seahawks HC Pete Carroll added that it would be “huge” if they could re-sign Richardson this offseason.

“If we could be fortunate enough to get Sheldon back, that would be huge,” Carroll said on Tuesday.

Richardson, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Jets back in 2013. He played out his the final year of his four-year, $10.054 million rookie contract but the Jets elected to pick up his fifth-year option last year, which means he’s under team control through the 2017 season and will make a bases salary of $8.069 million.

The Jets traded Richardson to the Seahawks for WR Jermaine Kearse and 2018 second-round pick. The two teams also swapped 2018 7th-round picks as part of the deal.

In 2017, Richardson appeared in 15 games for the Seahawks and recorded 44 tackles, one sack, an interception, a forced fumble, two recoveries and a pass defense.

We have him featured in our Top 100 – 2018 NFL Free Agents list.